The ongoing riots in Derry City continued to generate interest throughout the month of June.   Described by the Freeman’s Journal as being on the verge of destruction, tensions ran high after Catholics were attacked coming from Mass. Catholic houses were attacked in the Waterside and families were forced to leave their homes. In a night of terror on 19 June five men were killed. The fighting continued over...

Another radical newspaper in circulation in 1920 was Old Ireland a paper which provided commentary and debate on all of the leading issues of the day.   In an edition published in June 1920 in the wake of the county council elections, the editor of Old Ireland declared that the result was ‘a defeat for Carson’ and victory for republicanism. Amongst the contributors to Old Ireland was Maud Gonne McBride who in 19...

Radical newspapers continued to report on the activity of the military who, very much on the back foot, up the ante in terms of targeting suspected republicans and their homes.   The backlash also coincided with the upsurge in activity of the republican police and in many areas, incidents were directly related. In Lismore, county Waterford the military fired into the home of J. Geary; in Ardmore in the same county s...

Another popular newspaper in 1920 was The Irish Statesman, the organ of the Irish Dominion League.   This weekly journal ran from June 1919 and had its final issue 100 years ago this month. Edited by Warre B. Wells and with contributions from W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and George William Russell. In June 1920 among its contributors was Aodh de Blacam and Darrell Figgis. A political party formed to advocate fo...

  Historians of the Irish revolution are well aware that few records survive which shed light on the operation of republican courts which as we have already seen this month commenced in earnest all across the country in June 1920.   The Irish Bulletin frequently reported on the outcome of these court cases. A report in mid-June highlighted some 41 cases, 84 arrests by Republican police, which had taken place...

By June 1920 Republican Police were in control of many towns and villages across the country and began to hand out their own justice.   One of the areas they were most concerned with preventing was petty crime and larceny. A celebrated case in Millstreet, county Cork displayed how the local Republican police reacted to the robbery of the bank at Ballydaly Cross carried out by individuals who were not connected to th...

  June 1920 also witnessed the widespread establishment of republican or Dail courts, which replaced the holding of petty sessions in many towns and villages across the country. This transfer of administrative law and order was another decisive victory for the IRA. While often dealing with trivial matters they were nonetheless effective and soon people refused to bring claims before the petty sessions. The Young Ir...

  Irish Radical newspapers continued to comment and report on the vast array of IRA activities which were being carried out across the country during the month of June.   While the national daily newspapers and the weekly provincial press reported on large scale engagements by both the military and the IRA, the radical newspapers reported on the minutiae of the war. The Irish Bulletin, for example, reported ...

    One of the features of the War of Independence in June 1920 was the escalation of labour strikes and disputes throughout the country as people began to air their grievances.   The radical newspaper, The Watchword of Labour was to the forefront of informing the public of the nature and progress of these disputes. In county Kilkenny both county council workers and farmers unions were agitating for better pay...

  The IRA’s military campaign continued unabated in June 1920 and by the end of the month moral amongst the RIC was low.   The courts system had virtually collapsed and there was growing uncertainty about the long term governance of the country. It was also the month of the County Council Elections where Sinn Fein swept the board nationwide, winning control in all but four county councils. The support for Si...